Sights and Cities
by jellyjay
Summary: This trip has been a long time coming for the three of them. It's their last hurrah before college takes them to opposite ends of the country. It's a month away from home; touring through everything Europe has to offer with other kids from all over the world. It's everything Armin's wanted for a long time.
1. London Beckoned

**Sights and Cities**

_1830  
>Destination: London<br>Flight: MA 350_

_Status: Boarding_

Sometimes, when Armin has caffeine, he goes a little bit nuts. His wrings his hands a lot, and he paces, and it pisses off a lot of the people around him, especially if he's decided to have a cup of coffee before a test or something – generally, it's just not a good idea to let him have caffeine.

Armin has not had caffeine.

But he is going to London.

And he is not embarrassed in the least to admit that this is probably the most excited he's ever been in his life.

"You've been literally bouncing all day," comments Eren tiredly. "How are you doing that?"

Armin shrugs. "It's not every day you get to go to London."

"It _is_ everyday that you need sleep," counters Eren.

Armin grins apologetically. Travel has never been Eren's favourite activity in the world, if only because getting up at ridiculous hours to get to various airports takes its toll on him. Today has been a complete blur of events, and dimly, Armin recalls Mikasa shaking him and Eren awake at around seven AM with plates of toast and bacon balanced expertly on one arm. The drive to the airport with Doctor Jaeger was uncomfortable at best – four people and three suitcases don't Tetris well in a five person car, and then there was the wait Shiganshina Airport – and then the three hour flight to O'Hare International – and then another six hour wait before boarding – and now eleven more hours to Heathrow.

They're in line now, waiting to board their flight to London, and, to be fair, Armin completely understands why Eren looks so dead on his feet. Next to him, Mikasa looks only slightly healthier, but she's focussed on their itinerary and Googling their route to the hotel.

This trip has been a long time coming for the three of them. It's their last hurrah before college takes them to opposite ends of the country. It's three weeks away from home; touring through everything Europe has to offer with other kids from all over the world.

It's everything Armin's wanted for a long time.

"Come on, man," he says at last, nudging Eren's arm carefully. "It's Europe."

"Yep," says Eren, yawning widely and resting his head on Mikasa's shoulder. "Wake me when we get there."

Armin snorts. He pats Eren's shoulder in the least patronising way he can manage and offers Mikasa a small grin. "You're excited, right?"

"A bit," Mikasa says absently, adjusting a little to better accommodate Eren's head. "I think I will be more when we get there. I think we're all just tired. Well. Us two." She looks up from her phone briefly to smirk at him. "Some of us don't have that kind of energy to run with."

Armin lets out a sheepish chuckle. "I can look after the rest of that if you want," he says, motioning to the itinerary. "You look like you should sleep."

"So do you," says Mikasa, prodding Eren in the side so they can move forward in line. "It's eleven hours to London, Armin, you _are_ planning to get some rest on this flight, right?" She glances up again to frown at him sternly, and Armin coughs and glances away.

"Yeah," he answers weakly. "I have, like, Temazepam in my backpack – I'll take some on the flight, I promise. But yeah, you guys look ready to pass out so..."

Mikasa sighs. "Yeah. Okay," she says, relinquishing the itinerary just as they reach the flight attendant. "Here." She hands their boarding passes to the attendant while she's at it, and the he examines them briefly before he tears off the stubs and hands them back.

"Enjoy your flight, guys," he says.

Armin grins back, and he shuts his fists tight in his jacket pockets because it's almost enough to set him off again.

x

Mikasa and Eren pass out shortly after take off but Armin is almost bouncing again as he watches the Chicago turn from a bustling city into tiny pin pricks of light. Europe has probably been his life dream since he first took Latin in eighth grade and while he knows he should rest up, the itinerary is sitting on the tray table in front of him and he knows it's going to be next to impossible to calm down enough for sleep.

The tour company is called Legion and, according to the travel agent back in Shiganshina, is one of those companies aimed specifically at "18 to 30 somethings". It worried Armin a little at first, because people of that age tend to want to party more than anything else, but ultimately, it was cheaper and the idea of making a ton of new friends to learn from and, he supposes, party with, appeals to him more than he wants to admit. He reads over the itinerary again (he's probably knows it by heart now) and traces the route across the map on the travel journal his Grandpa had bought him before they left.

He's just about to start listing his priorities in each city when the itinerary is snatched off the tray table.

"Hey!" he protests, but he's met with Mikasa's stern glare.

"You said you would get some rest," she hisses, careful not to wake Eren (who looks about comatose anyway so Armin's not sure there's actually a point).

"I know but – " He sighs. "It's hard."

Mikasa rolls her eyes at him. "You said you had some Temazepam in your bag."

"I didn't want to take any," Armin mumbles, and Mikasa lets out a huff.

"Your grandpa will kill me if you excite yourself to death," she says sharply. "Please get some rest? We land at, like, six AM and it's still two transfers on the London underground before we get to the hotel. If you don't sleep now, you won't get to see the city."

Armin pauses because he knows she's right. There's a not a lot to see inside a plane cabin, but there is a ton more in London. "Fine," he resigns, snapping his travel journal shut and slipping it back into his backpack. He huffs and leans back in his seat. "Think we'll meet anyone cool on this trip?"

"Probably," yawns Mikasa. "Go to sleep. You can only run on that kind of adrenaline so long, and it'd suck to have to lug both you _and _Eren around in London." She chuckles. "I want to see stuff too, you know."

x

They check into their hotel at the eight AM the next day and the first thing Eren does when Armin opens the door to their room is collapse onto the nearest bed.

"Planes are the worst," he mumbles into the pillow, and Mikasa and Armin swallow their chuckles and set their luggage down at the two remaining beds.

"You know, the legal drinking age in London is eighteen," starts Armin, and Eren perks up just enough to eye him over the top of the pillow.

"Is that for real or are you just messing with me?"

"It's for real," chuckles Mikasa, prodding Eren carefully to make him move over. "There's a bar downstairs – we can try a little bit later with dinner – and I mean a _little bit_," she adds sharply, because Eren is starting to look a little bit _too_ curious for their liking. "We have an early start tomorrow and we probably won't forgive you if you make us miss the tour bus."

Eren huffs into the pillow but he glances at them and grins. There are still bags under his eyes, but at least he looks a little more human now. "Well, we're in London. What else is there to do here?"

"We have three nights here once the tour finishes up," says Armin. "I think it might be an idea to rest up and have a look around so we can make the most of our time here when we get back."

Mikasa nods. "Good plan. If that's settled, do you guys mind if I take a shower first?"

"Go for it," says Armin. "I wanna wander around for a bit. I can bring back some coffee if you guys like?"

"No caffeine for you," interrupts Eren, sitting up with a grunt. "But yeah, okay, I'll take some. Mikasa?"

"Sounds good as long as Armin doesn't get any actual caffeine!" Mikasa calls back.

Armin rolls his eyes good naturedly, slinging his backpack over his shoulder again and slipping the key card into his jacket pocket. "Ha ha, you guys are so funny," he says dryly. "But fine, okay. No caffeine for me. I'll see you in a little bit."

x

Leinster Square is lined with a number of other moderately priced hotels, with an assortment of eateries, bookstores, and souvenir shops along the road back to the nearest subway – tube, he should say – station. The apartment block across the street from their hotel, Armin notes, looks astonishingly like a scene from _Sherlock_, although he can't place exactly which. It's a little weird because he doesn't know what else he really expected – it's a lot the same as back home, but also a lot different, and the feeling of being somewhere so _new_ doesn't quite hit until he realizes he's kind of lost.

Well. He can't say he didn't expect that to happen either. He pauses in the middle of the sidewalk to fish the hotel business card out of his pocket, tray of coffee and hot chocolate balanced precariously in one hand. He's so focussed on the little map drawn into the card that he almost doesn't notice when someone knocks the tray out of his hand.

"Hey! What the –"

Armin yelps. "Oh, crap – I am so sorry! I wasn't – I didn't mean to – "

"It's fine," she snaps. She swears quietly under her breath as she tugs her hoodie over her head to assess the damage. "Urgh. There's probably not even time to wash this..."

"I um – sorry," mumbles Armin again. "That was my fault."

"Yeah," says the girl shortly, folding the hoodie over her arm. "That was a great move."

Armin hesitates, because he really honestly meant it when he said sorry, but this girl is kind of a douche. There's a scowl on her face that makes it look like she could murder him for this, but she's got the ocean for eyes and the sun in her hair and – well – she's at least a pretty douche, and he feels like he should probably do _something_ for screwing up her hoodie. "Can I – uh – do anything to make up for it?" he hazards carefully. "I mean, I could take care of the dry cleaning for it or something?"

"There's no point," she hisses. "I'm only in the city until tomorrow morning."

"Well – uh – so am I," says Armin. "I'm sure I could work something out."

She huffs, tucking a lock of hair behind her ear. "It's fine," she grumbles. "I'll take care of it myself. Watch your coffee next time, kid."

"It's Armin," says Armin dumbly, and the girl gives him a look and shakes her head.

"Right," she says. "Watch your damn coffee next time, _Armin._" She pushes past him without saying much else and disappears into the London crowd before Armin even has the chance to blink.

x

He makes it back to his hotel room about ten minutes later, and when he gets there, Mikasa is sitting cross legged on the bed nearest the window while Eren flips through channels on the wall mounted TV with a towel draped over his head.

"Finally," he says, giving up and switching off the TV all together. He frowns. "Where's the coffee?"

"Oh." Armin blinks. "Uh. I spilt it."

"...On purpose?" asks Eren, raising a sceptical eyebrow at him.

"Um. No," says Armin. He flushes. "There was a girl."

Eren pauses. "...You know we've been here less than a day."

"Yeah," says Armin. His flush darkens. "Shut up."

x

**Some notes:**

1) This fic started out as a joke when I was looking through holiday photos a while back. Basically, I went "Someone should write a fic where the Shingeki kids go to Europe" which led to "I SHOULD WRITE A FIC WHERE THE SHINGEKI KIDS GO TO EUROPE" aaaand here we are!

2) I may or may not write a number of side stories because a lot goes on in the plot in my head, but whether or not they'll all fit into one story is something different all together. Aruani for now. Will work out other pairings and stuff on the way.

3) It's been about a year since I last started a multichapter so I hope I'm not too out of practice. I hope you guys have fun regardless!


	2. Oh Frabjous Day (Callooh Calais)

**Sights and Cities**

An alarm goes off at five-ish in the morning, and Armin can't help the groan that slips from his throat as he tries to tug the duvet up and over his head. It's still dark out – he doesn't even need to open his eyes to know that – but there's a _click_ from somewhere in the room and suddenly there's light shining through his eyelids. He groans a second time because it is too damn early to be doing anything, and _God_, why is he so _tired_ –

_"Armin._"

Is that Mikasa? Odd – what's she doing at his place so early in the morning?

"Armin, get _up_, the tour bus leaves in half an hour."

Tour... bus?

Armin's eyes snap open, and he sits up so fast that he almost has to lie back down again from postural hypotension. He blinks bewilderedly around the room and notes that the window is in the wrong place and that there are two other beds across from his that he could have sworn weren't there before.

It takes him a whole second to realize that this is not his room and that this is not his bed.

"We're in London," he says stupidly, and then, after a second, the pieces come together in his mind. "We're in London!"

"Congratsh," says Eren, appearing from the bathroom with his toothbrush in his mouth. He smirks. "Shomeone wash all tuckered out lasht night, huh?"

"Like you weren't when we checked in," says Mikasa, eyeing Eren sternly. She turns back to Armin to offer him a small, but _very_ excited smile. "The hotel says they packed us a breakfast to go, so get up. We've gotta get moving. We're going to Amsterdam today."

x

It takes Armin all of ten minutes to get up, get changed and get his things together, and he glances out the window in time to catch sight of the Legion bus pulling up next to the side walk. It's one of those big luxury buses, painted forest green with the Legion motto (_'Ailes de la liberte'_) emblazoned on the side. Armin almost can't help the noise of excitement that forces its way out of his mouth.

Together, they lug their suitcases into the rickety elevator and make their way down to the hotel lobby. Armin clutches the straps of his backpack both to ease his nerves and to keep himself from going off again, and when the doors slide open, they're greeted by a lobby packed to the brim with chattering "18 to 30-somethings". They pause awkwardly, wondering who it is they're supposed to check in with, before Mikasa spots a woman in glasses wearing a deep green Legion shirt with a check list standing by the hotel reception.

"Come on," she says, motioning for Armin and Eren to follow.

They do, and the woman in glasses catches sight of them on their way over.

"Coming to join the Legion tour?" she asks, flashing them an excited grin. "Excellent! Welcome to Legion! I'm Hanji, by the way – I am your designated trip leader. Do you guys mind if I take a look at your passports quickly? Gotta make sure you're not just trying to sneak a trip." Hanji chuckles to herself a little as she searches for their names on her clipboard. "Is it Mikasa? Yep, and Armin and Eren – good, good, that's all in order. We're still waiting on a few people so we won't be leaving quite yet. Now might be a good time to get breakfast though – you won't get another chance to eat until we get to Dover."

Mikasa nods for them. "How long's drive?" she asks.

"A couple of hours," says Hanji, but Armin is only semi-listening now. He examines the crowd of kids curiously; there's a girl sitting in an armchair with a small packet of potato chips chatting to a boy with a buzz cut who's stifling his yawns with the back of his hand; there's a kid across from her with his feet propped up on a coffee table swapping food items with a kid covered in freckles; over in the corner, there are two boys, one towering over his much hulkier friend – it's a strange mix, and Armin wonders to himself how many of these people knew each other before they came here and how many are only just getting to know each other now.

"Dude."

Armin blinks, turning his attention back to Mikasa, Eren and Hanji in time for Eren to deposit a lunch bag into his arms.

"Courtesy of the hotel," says Eren. "Apparently, Legion starts the majority of its tours here. It's a pretty popular place to stay for people about to go on them."

Armin hums thoughtfully. "It _is_ pretty convenient," he comments. "Hey." He directs his next question at Hanji. "How many tours leave from here a day?"

"Usually just one," she answers. "It's too hard to keep track of people otherwise. Why?"

"I was just... wondering," says Armin lamely. He glances at the crowd to hide the blush creeping onto his face, but Eren's too quick for him, and he lets out a groan that turns into an amused laugh.

"Is this about that girl you spilled our coffee on?"

"No," says Armin, probably a little bit too quickly, because Eren snorts and pats his shoulder sympathetically. "And if it was, it would just be because I wanna apologize, like, properly. I did kind of ruin her hoodie."

Eren chuckles. "I dunno, man, you made her sound like kind of an asshole. If you're that desperate, maybe she's on Hanji's list."

"She might be," says Hanji, who sounds relatively reasonable, if a little bit amused. "Did you get her name?"

Armin lets out a sigh. "No. But she did say she was only in the city until today, which kind of sucks – I really do feel bad about it. "

"Only you would, bro." Eren pats his shoulder again and adjusts the strap of his backpack. "How many more people are we waiting for?"

Hanji checks her list again. "Three," she says after a moment. "Tell you what, the bus should be prepped by now – why don't you start loading your gear? It'll make things run a lot smoother when these last three ladies check in."

x

They climb onto the bus after their things are loaded, and Eren and Mikasa grab a pair of seats near-ish to the front of the bus. Armin takes the pair of seats in front of them and they agree between the three of them to rotate at every stop so they each have a chance to get the window seat and have a seat of their own.

Hanji seems like a nice trip leader. She's a little eccentric, but her enthusiasm is genuine and infectious and she sounds as if she's rather good at making long road trips feel like much shorter ones.

Their driver and linguist, on the other hand, does not. Hanji had said his name was Levi, and while she'd warned them that he could be a little bit temperamental, Armin swears he felt his insides dissolve a little at the look he'd given them as they loaded their things.

The others file on a little at a time; potato chip girl and her friend with the buzz cut take the seats on the other side of the aisle from Armin, and the two kids from before (Tall and Bulky) take the seats in front of him. There's a tiny blonde girl and her freckly and much taller girlfriend who climb onto the bus late who take seats right at the back, and, finally, Hanji and Levi climb on too.

"Good morning, everyone!" she greets. "Sit tight, we're just waiting on one more person. She's just gone back inside to get something and then we can be on our way!"

"And you guys thought I'd make you miss the bus," snorts Eren.

Armin leans back in his seat in time to catch Mikasa swatting Eren's arm playfully, and he grins excitedly at them both as he starts on the hotel's courtesy packed breakfast. It's a whole three minutes later before the final passenger climbs aboard the bus, and Armin glances up as she does and nearly chokes on his English muffin when he realizes who it is.

"Glad you could make it," he hears Hanji say. "There's a free seat over there, if you wanna take that one."

The girl nods shortly, sunshine yellow bangs slipping over ocean blue eyes, and too late, Armin realizes that the seat Hanji's referring to is the one next to him. She moves along the bus before Armin can even figure out what to do next, and her eyes widen when she spots him and then narrow suspiciously as she takes her seat.

"Well," she says. "If it isn't Coffee Boy."

Behind him, Eren snickers. "Bet you five Euro Armin won't want to play the rotation game."

x

"So did you get a name?"

Eren grins at him, looking far more amused than he should be about this whole situation, because the drive to Dover was pretty damn awkward and honestly, Armin so doesn't need this right now. They're on the deck of the ferry from Dover to Calais, watching as the White Cliffs grow fainter and fainter as they make their way across the Channel.

There's another bus waiting for them in Calais, and from there, it's a straight four hour drive to Amsterdam, which is both _awesome_ because Armin has always wanted to see the wind farms dotted along the country in France and the Netherlands, but also terrifying because it means another four long and awkward hours next to Annie (yes, he'd gotten a name, thank you very much – he may be awkward, but not _that_ awkward).

"Don't tease him, Eren," scolds Mikasa. "Of course he got a name, weren't you listening? She said it was Annie, didn't she?"

The shade of red Armin's face goes is not a shade he's proud of. "_You were listening?"_

"To be fair, there wasn't a lot to listen to," Mikasa points out, smirking a little. "You apologised profusely, and she told you it was fine – albeit a little coolly – and then you asked for her name and that was literally your whole conversation."

"You're supposed to be my friends," mumbles Armin, still red in the face. "You're not supposed to be making fun of me for this."

"What are you, like twelve?" teases Eren. "Honestly, I don't even think she thinks it was that bad. Maybe that's just what she's like – which, you know – does make it a little harder for you to hit on her, but you've got like two and half whole weeks, man."

"I'm not _trying _to hit on her!" protests Armin. "She's just – you know – if we have to be bus buddies, I'd rather we be on friendlier terms!"

"Yeeeah," says Eren, smirking, "see, that's weird, because I thought we were still doing seat rotations. Didn't you, Mikasa?"

"_Eren_." Mikasa sighs and rolls her eyes. "We're just kidding around, Armin. We're supposed to be making friends on this trip too, so it's good you want to branch out. But don't feel like you have to be 'bus buddies' or whatever – there's no guarantee we'll all be in the same seats, and, if we are, we can still do rotations."

Armin shakes his head. "N-no," he manages at last. "It'll be fine, I think. Branching out, like you said."

"You're a trooper," she chuckles, patting his shoulder gently.

Beside her, Eren opens his mouth to say something else, but he pauses and shakes his head with a sigh. "Never mind," he says, and he nudges Mikasa instead. "So do I get five Euro or what?"

x

**Some notes:**

1) This is my last semester at uni ever and things are going to get very busy very soon and I can't guarantee I can update as often as I would like HOWEVER the last time I said that, I ended up updating a fic like once every three days, so keep your fingers crossed and hope that I am on top of my crap enough to update regularly and still pass this semester.

2) A lot of the things that may or may not happen in this fic (and its accompanying side fics if I do end up writing those) is based very heavily on actual events that happened while I was in Europe last year. It was a pretty wild trip. Just putting that out there.


End file.
